Complete Game Notes (pdf)
Game 24: Lady Blues vs Nebraska-Kearney
No. 5 Washburn Lady Blues (20-3, 14-1 MIAA)
vs Fort Hays State Tigers (18-5, 10-5 MIAA)
Date: Saturday, February 23, 2013
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Topeka, Kan.
Arena: Schendel Court at Lee Arena (3,904)
Radio: Country Legends 106.9 FM with Jake Lebahn and Mark Elliott
Series Record: WU leads 44-26
Last Meeting: WU 63-60 on 01/10/13 (A)
Washburn Coach Ron McHenry: 339-68 (.833) in his 13th year at WU and overall
FHSU Coach Tony Hobson: 77-57 (.575) in 5th year at FHSU and 288-97 (.748) in 12th year overall.
Micro-Blogging the Blues
(Around) 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season
Washburn reached a season high with a No. 5 spot in Tuesday's USA Today Sports national poll. Washburn was last that high at No. 4 in week 4 of 2010-11.
The Lady Blues just clinched their 12th straight 20 win season. All 12 have come under 13-year coach
Ron McHenry.
Washburn entered the week first in the MIAA and fifth in the nation allowing 51.2 points a game. They're 11th in the nation and first in the MIAA allowing opponents to shoot .341 from the field.
FHSU is the last opponent to score at least 60 against Washburn as the Tigers had 60 on January 10 in Hays. Since then, Washburn has kept 12 straight opponents to under 60 points.
Washburn ranked fifth in the nation when the week began in rebound margin at +10.6. Only two three teams have out-rebounded Washburn (UWP, FHSU and NWMSU).
The Lady Blues lead the MIAA with a 14-1 record with Central Missouri a game behind them in the loss column at 13-2 Washburn was the first team to clinch a spot in the MIAA postseason tournament.
Washburn is 44-26 all-time against Fort Hays State and hasn't lost at home to the Tigers since 1994-95.
Laura Kinderknecht is third in career 3-pointers at Washburn, now with 185. Current assistant coach
Stevi Schultz is second with 217.
She just moved to 10th in career assists at Washburn with 293.
Kinderknecht was fifth in the MIAA averaging 15.3 points a game and third with 3.0 3-pointers made per game. Her 3-point total is eighth in the nation.
Head coach
Ron McHenry earned his 300th win last year and is currently 338-68 in his 13th year at Washburn.
McHenry has 7 MIAA regular season titles and 7 MIAA tournament championships to go along with NCAA tournament appearances in all but his 1st season, including a 2004-05 national title.
No. 5 Lady Blues looking for 10th straight win Saturday against FHSU
The Lady Blues can clinch an MIAA tournament first round bye with a win as they host Fort Hays State Saturday at 5 p.m. at Schendel Court in Lee Arena. No. 5 Washburn has won nine straight while the Tigers have won five straight.
The game will be carried on Country Legends 106.9 FM with Jake Lebahn and Mark Elliott calling the action.
Washburn (20-3 overall, 14-1 MIAA) clinched its 12th straight 20-win season Thursday in a 69-51 victory over Nebraska-Kearney. The Lady Blues lead the MIAA standings and need two wins in the final three games to clinch at least a share of their second straight MIAA regular season title.
The Tigers are 18-5 overall and tied for sixth in the MIAA at 10-5. They beat Nebraska-Kearney last Saturday, 62-50 and have been off since then.
These two teams played each other on January 10 in Hays and the Lady Blues won, 63-60 after a layup with 13 seconds remaining by
Stormye Everett. Washburn has won 19 of the last 20 against FHSU and hasn't lost in Lee Arena since 1994-95.
Lady Blues secure 12th straight 20-win season
The Lady Blues' win Thursday against Nebraska-Kearney clinched their 12th straight 20-win season. All 12 20-win seasons have come under 13-year head coach
Ron McHenry.
Overall, Washburn has 22 20-win seasons with Patty Dick presiding over the first 11 from 1982-83 through 1994-95.
Washburn is averaging 27 wins a season in the last 11 years and has five 30-win seasons.
Lady Blues sit atop first NCAA Central Region ranking
The Lady Blues were ranked No. 1 in the first NCAA Central Region ranking released Wednesday.
Central Missouri is second in the region ranking and Concordia-St. Paul is third. Minnesota State is fourth and Truman is the only other MIAA team in the top 8 at No. 5.
The Central Region is made up of the MIAA, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the Great American Conference. The winners of those three conference tournaments will earn automatic berths to the NCAA Central Region tournament with the five remaining spots filled in by the top teams in the final NCAA ranking. The eight-team Central Region tournament will take place March 15-18 at the site of the top seed in the region. The winner will advance to the Elite 8, March 26-29 in San Antonio, Texas.
McHenry just coached 400th career game
Washburn head coach
Ron McHenry coached his 400th career game, all with the Lady Blues, January 24 at Lindenwood.
He's gone 339-68 in his 13 years and with his .833 winning percentage, McHenry entered the year with the highest winning percentage in NCAA II among active coaches with at least five years of experience. He's second all-time (active or not) among coaches with at least 10 years.
His teams have gone to 11 straight NCAA tournaments with eight MIAA titles.
Lady Blues continue climb with No. 5 national ranking
The Lady Blues climbed one more spot in the ranking to No. 5 in Tuesday's USA Today Sports national poll. The ranking marks a season high for Washburn and the highest ranking since being No. 4 in the third week of the 2010-11 season.
Washburn had been ranked sixth last week and was ninth the previous two weeks. Washburn has now been in the top 10 seven times this year.
The Lady Blues have been ranked in 169 of the last 170 polls, dating back to week three of the 2002-03 season. The final poll of the 2010-11 season was the last time Washburn was not ranked. This is Washburn's 122nd time in the national top 10.
Ashland lost for the first time this year and dropped to third. Bentley took over the top spot with Clayton State at No. 3. Colorado Mesa is No. 4 and Holy Family fell from fifth to sixth. Central Missouri is seventh and is the only other MIAA team in the ranking. Truman, Pittsburg State, Fort Hays State and Emporia State are all earning votes.
Lady Blues keeping recent opponents to under 55 points, lead MIAA and are fifth in nation in scoring defense
The Lady Blues have kept 12 straight opponents to 54 or less points and they started the week first in the MIAA and fifth in the nation allowing just 51.2 points a game. Washburn's field goal percentage defense of .341 was 11th lowest in the nation and first in the MIAA.
Saturday opponent Fort Hays State is the last team to score above 54 as the Tigers got 60 on January 10 in Hays. Washburn has only allowed 60 or more five times this year with the 68 in a win against Emporia State on January 2 being the highest allowed this year.
Only four of Washburn's opponents have shot better than 40 percent. Northwest Missouri shot 50 percent on February 9 and 43 percent on February 16, Arkansas Tech shot .439 on November 24 and Northeastern State shot .435 on January 13. Washburn won three of those four games.
Kinderknecht named to Capital One Academic All-America second team
Senior guard
Laura Kinderknecht was named to the Capital One Academic All-America second team as the teams were announced Wednesday by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Members of CoSIDA select the all-district teams and a national panel selects the All-America team.
Kinderknecht has a 3.84 GPA in mathematics. She's the fifth academic All-American in Washburn history and the first since Nikki Olberding won a second team honor in 1997-98. She's the first to win the honor under head coach
Ron McHenry.
Kinderknecht moving up in record books
Laura Kinderknecht moved to third in career 3-pointers earlier this year and currently has 185, 32 away from second at Washburn. She's 10th with 293 assists and needs seven more to become the seventh Lady Blue to reach 300 assists. She is also 49 points away from becoming the 22nd Lady Blue to score 1,000 career points.
With seven assists, 15 3-pointers and 49 points, she will become the first Lady Blue to reach 1,000 points, 200 3-pointers and 300 assists.
Seven seniors return to lead Washburn
Seven seniors return to this year's team and among them are three four-year players:
Dana Elliott,
Laura Kinderknecht and
Laura McMullin. Two-year player
Sami McHenry will play this year as her final while
Stormye Everett,
Sierra Moeller and
Tiara George were all junior transfers last year.
Moeller is the leading returning rebounder with 6.7 a game last year but she will have to sit the first semester to save her final semester of eligibility. George is the leading returning scorer with 6.0 points a game. Kinderknecht scored 5.8 and Elliott scored 4.8 a game.
Lady Blues clinch spot in 12-team MIAA tournament
The Lady Blues clinched their 23rd straight trip to the MIAA tournament and they have now qualified for every MIAA tournament since becoming eligible in 1990-91. Washburn can earn a first round bye with a win Saturday against Fort Hays State.
With the conference expanding to 15 teams, the tournament is now a 12-team event with the top four teams in the conference earning a bye to the quarterfinal rounds at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., on March 8 with semifinals and the final in the two days following.
The Nos. 5 through 8 teams in the final MIAA standings will host Nos. 9 through 12 in on-campus play-in games on March 5.
Coming Up Next
Just two more games will remain on the schedule as Washburn travels to Emporia State on February 27 and then hosts Central Missouri on March 2 on Senior Day. The MIAA first round game, which Washburn needs one more win to avoid, is March 5 and the final three rounds of the tournament will be March 8-10 in Kansas City.
